TMS NEWSLETTER April 2019

FROM THE PRINICIPAL’S DESK

As we enter the spring season and the fourth quarter, we head down the home stretch of the 2018-2019 school year. Hopefully this edition of our TMS Newsletter will fill you in on the many happenings with our Tiger Community.

SBAC and NWEA Assessment Testing

Smarter Balanced Assessment Testing will be administered to middle school students dur-ing the month of April and Northwest Education Assessment Testing will take place during the month of May. A more formal testing calendar will be forthcoming with specific con-tent area assessments and testing dates.

TMS Showcase Night

Showcase Night will be held at TMS on Thursday, April 4th from 5:00-7:00 PM. Displays and demonstrations of student work for all grade levels will be available for parents and com-munity members to view. Teachers will be on hand to discuss the student’s work and an-swer any questions that visitors may have. In some cases, students will also be available for demonstration or discussion. For example, grade six students will be on hand as they per-form their Wax Museum of historical figures. We hope parents and community members take this opportunity to view the interesting, exciting projects, and work that our students engage in at TMS.

Eligibly for Spring Athletics and Events

Please be reminded that any student failing two or more subjects at the conclusion of the third marking period will be academically ineligible to participate in any extracurricular activi-ties and/or interscholastic athletics during the fourth quarter. Such activities include all school sports, dances, trips and Kids Night Out events. An individual letter will be sent home to the parents of students who are determined to be academically ineligible.

Academic Support Center

Please be reminded that the Academic Support Center is held every Tuesday and Thursday in the TMS Media Center until 4PM. The purpose of the Academic Support Center is to provide support to students who are facing academic challenges. Parents of students needing aca-demic support and assistance will be contacted by teachers to schedule their students into the Academic Support Center. A late bus is available to students as needed. For further infor-mation, please call the TMS Main office.

Student Attire

As the warm weather approaches students and parents should be making good decisions rela-tive to student attire. All students are expected to be dressed appropriately and in good taste for school and school-related activities. Please review the Dress Code Policy on pages 15-16 of the TMS Student Handbook.

Spring athletics are now underway. After a long and diffi-cult search we have coaches for each of the teams. Base-ball will be coached by Bill Gagnon and assisted by Joe Hill. Tryouts are now in progress (Mar 25,26,27) with 30 boys trying out for 15 spots. Numbers for softball are very light with 10 girls interested in playing. Softball will begin April 1st. Their coach will be Kelsey Keefe. Finally, the track pro-gram rounds off the spring offerings with 30 interested in participating. We do have a new coach, Melissa Amwall. Track practice begins Mar 26th. Presently Deb Spinelli will assist both track and softball to get the seasons off the ground. In addition, we will run fall sport registrations early this year (before school is out) to verify our numbers. Parents please note that initial registration is on the school web site through family ID. This is only one part of the registra-tion process. In addition, athletes and parents must attend the Mandatory Parent Player meeting and have a physical dated after July 1st of the intended school year of participation. All criteria must be met to be eligible to par-ticipate.

From the Athletic Department

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TMS Chorus Performs at the DCU Center

The TMS Chorus sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the Worcester Railers game on March 22nd, as

part of Thompson School Spirit Night. Fortezza, the 4th grade select choir also performed “God Bless Amer-

ica” before the game. A huge thank you goes out to all of the families that attended! We had a great turnout,

including 38 chorus members, which is the most we’ve ever had perform at a hockey game. Great job per-

formers!

Rock ‘n’ Roll Fundraiser

All parents are invited to attend the Rock ‘n’ Roll Fundraiser on Saturday, April 13th at the Valley Springs

Sportsmans Club. Come and enjoy a fun, adults-only night out with live music by local band Skud Farkus

Affair! The doors will open at 6:00 p.m. with music from 7-10 p.m. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased

through Mr. Leclerc. All proceeds will benefit the TMS Music Department!

TMS Music on Facebook

You can now follow TMS Music on Facebook!

Just search for: TMS Music CT

MUSIC NEWS

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FINAL NOTICE: I recently mailed home reminder letters to parents of 6

th grade

students that still need a physical and/or immunizations to trans-fer into 7

th grade.

A COMPLETED PHYSICAL FORM AND MANDATED IMMUNIZATIONS MUST BE SUBMITTTED INTO THE NURSE’S OFFICE BEFORE THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL. PHYSICALS NEED TO BE DATED AFTER 7/1/18 OF THIS SCHOOL YEAR. You can fax, email, scan, or have your child bring me in a copy. This requirement is mandated by the State of Connecticut for your child to enter 7th grade.

Thank You, Ann Hougasian, RN, BSN Middle School Nurse Phone- 860-923-3574 EXT 571 Fax - 860-963-4874

From the School Nurse

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As you may know, Mrs. P-G recently retired and I am the new health teacher at TMS. It has been wonderful getting to know the students and the school community these past couple months.

In fifth grade, we are talking about the interrelationships of body systems. Currently, we are focusing on the central nervous system and are busy making brain hats. In sixth grade, we are learning about communication. We are focusing on how to com-promise and resolve conflicts in healthy ways. The seventh grade is currently working on a project about sleep and why it is im-portant, especially for middle school students. We are creating power points, videos and/or comic strips in class. The eighth grade is currently discussing drug use and abuse and rehearsing refusal techniques through role plays and skits that they have cre-ated.

I look forward to continuing to get to know the Thompson community and teaching the students at TMS how to live healthy lifestyles.

Thank you,

Jessica Jervis

HEALTH EDUCATION NEWS

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Happy spring to everyone! It is amazing to think we are already into the last part of

the school year and starting to get some nice spring weather. So far for the spring

semester my physical education class has completed a team games unit, nitroball

unit, and are now finishing up basketball. Nitroball was a great unit. It is a new game

that is a modified version of volleyball. We will be moving on to badminton and fit-

ness in the near future. Since it is the end of March we will also be participating in

fitness testing coming up. Aside from physical education class, we will also be start-

ing a flag football league to finish out the school year in our enrichment classes. This

was made possible by a grant we received from Fuel Up To Play 60, which focuses

on being active for 60 minutes every day along with healthy eating habits. Have a

fantastic start to the spring season!!!

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

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DARE

The fifth grade students have started working with Trooper Cummings from the Con-

necticut State Police on the DARE program. Each week Trooper Cummings comes

into the classroom to speak about drugs and alcohol awareness, bullying, internet

safety, and keeping yourself safe. Students get to watch videos and work in their

DARE workbooks. At the end of the program, all students will write and present an

essay about what they learned during DARE.

We would like to thank the Middle School PTO for their continued support of DARE.

5TH GRADE NEWS

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Hailey Collins was a state runner up in the United States Department of Justice 2019 “Bring Our Missing Children Home” poster contest. Hailey used her free time to create a poster that encourages everyone to keep all

children safe and served as a reminder to keep trying to reunite missing children with their families.

SHRI YOGA

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Yoga classes are up and running at TMS. Ginny Moylan and Mary Monahan are teaching weekly classes to 5th and 6th graders. We are working on a plan to include 7th and 8th grade students as well. Students can sign up for classes during ILT (Individualized Learning Time) periods. The classes combine movement, community building activities and group mindfulness. Don’t forget to stop by during the Student Showcase, April 4th, to see our new Yoga Room (B112). Here are some of our aspiring Yogis…..

Grade 6 News

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DAY 100

On February 5th, 2019 Grade 6 students celebrated the 100th Day at

Thompson Middle School. In addition to their normal lessons, they were

excited to add a few Day 100 activities to their day.

In Mrs. Groh’s ELA classes, students created a list of 100 compound

words, they each read 100 minutes that day and to continue celebrating

Black History Month, they wrote 100 word essays on how Rosa Parks

and Martin Luther King, Jr. inspired them.

In Social Studies, students reviewed what happened in history 100 years

ago, as well as looking at 100 of the most important people of the 20th

Century.

In Math, Mrs. Claprood’s students created various word problems which

resulted in sums, differences, quotients and products of 100. It was an ex-

citing and memorable experience for all the math students and a great

way to celebrate Day 100 at TMS!

Ms. Monahan's ELA classes observed the 100th Day of School with a twist! They worked on activities that have to do with the $100 bill and Benjamin Franklin! The students wrote an imaginary story about finding a one hundred dollar bill, read all about Ben Franklin, and learned some of his unique sayings!

Mrs. Groh and Ms. Preble's ELA classes recently performed two Reader's Theater performances for their peers. Some of the benefits of Reader's Theater include in-creasing reading fluency, increased confidence, increased oral presentation skills and improved comprehension among others. Mrs. Groh's classes performed The Golden Touch, a story based on the Greek myth of King Midas. Ms. Preble's stu-dents performed The Expert, a story of five friends who rely on their expertise with pets to start a pet-care service so they can earn money. Great job to all! The perfor-mances were outstanding!!

6th Grade Continued

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Dear Families,

Recently in the grade six ELA classes, we began studying nonfiction. Our

Amelia Earhart presentation kicked off this unit. Included in this study is learning about famous people using biographies and/or autobiographies. Each student in the ELA classes will chose a famous historical person to

research. The person they chose made a major contribution to history and is no longer alive. A detailed report will be written about the topic. The stu-dents will also memorize information and will be able to talk as if they are that person. The rubric and guidelines on what they need to include were

emailed to you and the students, as well as given to your child in class. The expectation of dressing up is that they would dress up in similar fash-ion and use props to help them become that historical person. The idea of a wax museum is that a student is frozen until an adult taps a button on

the table to bring the figure (student) to life. The speech the students will be giving during their presentations should last 2-3 minutes and include the important facts included below, but also given to your child in class.

Props and costumes can usually be found in closets or at local thrift shops. We can also work together to help each other. It is helpful to begin the costume search sooner than later. The Wax Museum will be held in their ELA classes during the week of March 25th, 2019. We will also have

an evening performance at our Student Showcase on April 4th, 2019, where you will be able to see the wax figures “come alive”. Grade six stu-dents are very excited about this learning experience.

6th Grade Continued

The highlight of the third quarter for the 7th

grade was a field trip to the Connecticut Sci-

ence Center. The main exhibit was the Real

Bodies Exhibit, where students were able to

view various human anatomical systems that

have been preserved. Students also enjoyed

experimenting and learning in the sports lab,

forces in motion, and the picture of health ex-

hibits. The 3D movie was a big hit! It was

called mysteries of the unseen world and gave

the students a zoomed in look at things around

us everyday, like ants, plants, pollen, etc.

In May, students will attend a Yard Goats

Baseball Game to complement their math unit

on statistics and probability.

8th Grade 8th Grade Science is wrapping up a unit on Newton’s Laws. The students have created Newton’s Scooters us-ing the concept of Newton’s 3rd law. This has been a very exciting and challenging project for the kids as

they use their own ideas and materials to create a scooter that moves without human intervention. We will be finishing our unit on forces and motion with an investigation involving friction and safely transporting Televisions. It’s a great prac-tical application for the concepts we have been studying. Our year will conclude with a study of the various types of waves and building bridges, out of straws and paperclips, to be tested at the end of the year. In ELA class, we are swiftly moving forward in our unit on historical fiction. Students participated in several activities to build background knowledge about WWII and the Holo-caust. We have been reading the novel Soldier X by Don Wulffson, which tells the story of a young German soldier who is forced to make a difficult decision in order to save his life. Additionally, we completed several creative writing pieces this quarter, including Blackout Poems, Thumbprint Self-Portraits, and a Create-a-Character Project, which will be proudly displayed at the student showcase on Thursday, April 6th. In U.S. History, we’re nearing the end of our unit on Texas Independ-ence and the Mexican-American War. We’ve discussed important events such as the siege at The Alamo, where the Mexicans killed all the defenders, including frontier icons Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, or the Battle of San Jacinto, where Sam Houston was able to take the Mexican Army by surprise, losing only 6 men in the victory, where the Mexicans lost 630. We further explored the Mexican War, where the United States was able to acquire the current states of California, Ar-izona, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada as a result of their victory.

Our next unit will be on the Industrial Revolution.

8th Grade Continued

Washington, D.C. Trip

We are looking forward to our upcoming trip to Washington, D.C. We will be visiting our capital from May 14th through the 17th. While in Washington, we will see and visit: The Smithson-ian Institute, Nationals baseball game, Arlington National Cem-etery, the Holocaust Museum, the National Museum of Ameri-can History, Ford’s Theater (viewing Into the Woods), the WWII Memorial, Lincoln, Korean, and Vietnam Memorials, and tour the US Capitol. While en route to Philadelphia, we will dine at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. In Philadelphia, we will be visiting Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, the Museum of the American Revolution, and the National Constitution Cen-ter. If your child is not traveling to Washington with us, they will get to enjoy these experiences through a virtual field trip tour, that will mimic the trip described above. Each and every day, while in school, the students will get to enjoy the same things we are en- joying virtually!!!

On Saturday, March 9, 2019, Lucy Trudeau and Mrs. Chenail took a group of twelve 8th grade girls to the University of CT - Storrs Campus for the "Multiply Your Options Program". This was a fun-filled day that included lots of hands-on activi-ties involving Science, Engineering, Technology, and Math. The program was sponsored by the Society of Women Engineers - from UCONN's Undergraduate program. Our students had the opportunity to simulate 3D printing, extracting DNA, using the acid from lemons to light up an LED bulb, cleaning up an oil spill on water, and creating the right aggregate to make a paved road good enough for travelling on. Our students were so engaged all day! The UCONN engineer-ing students definitely sparked an interest in our girls! Several of them are interested in attending one of the summer STEM camps that UCONN is offering!

I want to thank Superintendent Smith for allowing us to attend this incredible program! I can't wait to do it again! -Mrs. Chenail

8th Grade Continued

8th Grade

8th Grade Project Graduation

The 8th Grade Project Graduation has had several events in the

last few weeks. The corn hole tournament and adult comedy

night were a success. Thank you to all the businesses and par-

ents who donated items for raffles for both events. Last but not

least, thank you to the parents who supported the events by ei-

ther setting up, breaking down, going to the businesses to get

donations and attending the functions.

We have a few more fundraisers coming up. Many parents have

asked for the return of Little Caesar's. The tentative dates for

this fundraiser are April 22nd - May 6th. We will also have

Bravehearts tickets to purchase for a game on Friday, May 31st

with fireworks to follow. All proceeds will benefit the 8th Grade

semi-formal and end of the year field trip. We will send out more

information on the upcoming fundraisers as the dates approach.

Thank you

8th GPG

Student Council

Thompson Middle School Student Council members have BIG hearts and they showed it!! This past Feb-ruary, TMS student council members sold heart necklaces in the middle school. Pictured are student council members handing Chief Sharpe a check for $100. The money raised from this fundrais-er was do- nated to our local Com- munity Fire Department and will help support the upkeep of the fire de- partment’s defibrillators, which are heart saving devices used throughout the communi-ty. Pictured in the photo with Mrs. Groh and the TMS Student Council is Thompson Middle School Princi-pal Steve Knowlton and Chief John Sharpe from Community Fire Department. Thank you to Chief Sharpe, as well as a special thank you to Mr. Joe Lindley, Thompson Board of Education member, who shared with Mrs. Groh many heart-worthy pro-grams and causes that could benefit from the mon-ey they raised. Students were very proud to have raised money for such a worthy cause as the local Community Fire Department.

PTO

Student of the Month

January 2019

Gaige Smith Zahara Moore

Patrick Moulton Bailee Carlson

Jacob Perry Ziare Moore

Matt Siegmund Brook Arpin

Student of the Month

February 2019

Chloe Hebert

Dylan Bryniarski

Sage Bukowski

Luke Senosk

Gabby Lubomirski

Nick Kostacopoulos

Emma Benoit

Alex Nachtigall

Upcoming Events

April 3, 2019-Last Day for Mixed Bag Fundraiser

April 4, 2019-Student Showcase and Wax Museum 5-7pm

April 5, 2019-KNO Grades 4,5 and 6 6:30-8:30 pm

April 5, 6 and 7, 2019-Wizard of Oz –tickets available at all the schools

April 10, 2019-Mrs. Perkins Superhero Day

April 11, 2019-Pick up for Gertrude Hawk Fundraiser

April 13, 2019-Rock-n-Roll Fundraiser

April 15-19, 2019-Spring Break

April 24, 2019- Hoops for Hearts

April 26, 2019-Fabulous Friday

May 14-19, 2019-Eighth Grade Field Trip to Washington DC

May 22, 2019-7th Grade Yardgoats Field Trip

May 24, 2019-5th Grade Mystic Seaport Field Trip

June 11, 2019-5th Grade Boston Duck Tours Field Trip

June 13, 2019-Tenative Last Day of School

June 13, 2019 –Tentative date for Moving Up Ceremony

Little League Opening Day Parade

7th and 8th grade bands

Thompson Library parking lot

Saturday, April 20th at 11 a.m.

Grease Musical Field Trip

6th, 7th, and 8th grade chorus

Friday, May 10th

TMS Music Spring Concert

All grades - band/chorus

Tuesday, May 21st at 6 p.m.

Great East Music Festival

7th and 8th grade bands

Friday, May 24th at 7:30 a.m.

Memorial Day Parade

7th and 8th grade bands with the HS band

Monday, May 27th at 9 a.m.

Upcoming Music Events